The Crab with the Golden Claws (film)

The Crab with the Golden Claws
The Crab with the Golden Claws
Directed by	Claude Misonne
Written by	João B. Michiels
Produced by	Wilfried Bouchery
Cinematography	B. Michel; A. Dunil; E. Bernstein
Edited by	A. Leduc
Music by	G. Bethune; A. Ducat
Release date	11 January 1947 (Belgium);
Running time	58 minutes
Country	Belgium
Language	French

The Crab with the Golden Claws (French: Le crabe aux pinces d'or) is a 1947 Belgian stop motion feature film produced by Wilfried Bouchery for Films Claude Misonne and based on the comic book of the same name from The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé. This was the first Tintin story to be adapted into a movie and follows the story of the comic almost exactly.

There were only two theatrical screenings of the film; the first at the ABC Cinema on 11 January 1947 for a group of special invited guests, while the other one was shown in public on 21 December of that year, before Bouchery declared bankruptcy and fled to Argentina. All of the equipment was seized and a copy of the film is currently stored at Belgium's Cinémathèque Royale. The copy is available to watch for paying members of the Tintin club.

Plot

Tintin finds himself involved in a mystery of a drowned man, a regular tin of crab meat, and the name of a ship called the Karaboudjan scribbled on a piece of paper inside of the man's pockets. Upon investigating the ship, Tintin discovers that the shipment of tin cans contains not crab meat, but drugs. After learning about the ship's shady business, Tintin ends up becoming prisoner on the ship which already cast off from the port. The only way for Tintin to escape is by heading for dry land by lifeboat, and the only person to aid him is the ship's whisky guzzling Captain named Haddock who is the only one on board not aware that his crew is trafficking drugs right under his nose.